Preview: Norwich City vs. Blackburn Rovers - prediction, team news, lineups

Norwich City will be aiming to make it 10 wins in a row when they host Blackburn Rovers in the Championship on Saturday.

The Canaries are the runaway leaders in the second tier, while Rovers have nothing left to play for and currently occupy 15th position in the table.

Match preview

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Early goals from Teemu Pukki and Kieran Dowell secured a 2-0 win for Norwich on Wednesday against Nottingham Forest – a club record ninth successive victory.

It has been a quite scintillating run, in which they have conceded just three times, and has summed up their dominance in the Championship this season; they are 10 points clear of Watford in second and 13 ahead of third-placed Brentford.

Daniel Farke's side are simply a cut above the rest, and with their next four games being against bottom-half sides, their run could continue for a few weeks yet with promotion back to the Premier League the reward at the end of it.

Norwich have only lost one home game this season and are unbeaten in their last 16 matches at Carrow Road, where they have conceded just nine times in 18 games. The Canaries have also won six of their last seven games against Blackburn, with Rovers' last victory in this fixture coming in 2012 in the Premier League, while they have not won at Carrow Road in their last six visits.

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It is fair to say that all of that makes this the worst possible game for Tony Mowbray as he continues as Blackburn boss despite growing fan resistance.

The Lancashire outfit played out a drab 0-0 stalemate with Bristol City on Wednesday, leaving them with just one win in their last 11 matches.

Rovers had the bulk of the possession and the chances but lacked any sort of quality in front of goal to put the ball in the back of the net – a stark contrast to the beginning of the campaign when they were scoring freely.

Only Norwich and Brentford have scored more goals away from home than Blackburn (24) this season but that statistic is slightly skewed by their prolific nature early on.

Team News

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Emiliano Buendia is expected to return for Norwich after missing the win over Forest as he was with his partner following the birth of their second child.

The key attacker could replace Kieran Dowell, who deputised on the right wing on Wednesday, but Farke has a tough decision to make after the former Everton youngster got on the scoresheet.

Farke is unlikely to make any other changes to the Canaries as they aim to head into the international break with yet another win.

Mowbray, meanwhile, made six changes to the Blackburn team in midweek as he looked to ease the fixture schedule through squad rotation.

Ryan Nyambe and John Buckley are among the names that could come back into the starting lineup at Carrow Road, but Tom Trybull is ineligible against his parent club.

Lewis Travis will be assessed ahead of the match after being forced off due to a knock to the hip against Brentford last weekend which meant he missed the game against Bristol City.

Norwich City possible starting lineup:

Krul; Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Giannoulis; McLean, Skipp; Buendia, Rupp, Cantwell; Pukki

Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:

Kaminski; Nyambe, Lenihan, Harwood-Bellis, Douglas; Johnson, Rothwell, Buckley; Elliott, Armstrong, Gallagher

We say: Norwich City 3-0 Blackburn Rovers

Norwich do not look like slowing down any time soon, and we can only see another Canaries win here, particularly with the talismanic Buendia set to return. Blackburn are low on confidence and badly out of form so it could be a nightmare afternoon for the Lancashire side.